JOSE GASPAR: Florez wages campaign for farmworker overtime
BY JOSE GASPAR, Californian contributing columnist
jgaspar@bakersfield.com | Sunday, Jun 27 2010 09:33 AM
Last Updated Sunday, Jun 27 2010 09:33 AM

Most working-class people enjoy the benefits of overtime pay after eight hours in a day.

The exception? Farmworkers who toil in the fields in blistering triple-digit heat.

State Senator Dean Florez (D-Shafter) has had enough of that exclusion, which was established nearly 70 years ago.

He's introduced Senate Bill 1121, a bill that would grant standard overtime pay to the hundreds of thousands of farmworker men, women and teens. Currently, farmworkers are eligible for overtime after 10 hours a day or 60 hours a week under state law.

But that just doesn't seem fair.

"I think it is wrong that we have laws that discriminate against the people who pick and pull crops in the fields by treating them different in terms of pay," said the Senate Majority Leader whose grandparents worked in the fields.

He said the overtime bill is a priority for him and hopes to see passage before he terms out this year.

Florez is responsible for writing -- and getting passed -- other laws aimed at protecting farmworkers. Laws, such as outlawing wooden benches in farmworker vans and requiring seat belts and forward-facing seating in vans transporting workers to the fields. The law came after a series of deadly accidents in the Central Valley in which unrestrained workers were tossed around like rag dolls in vehicles.

Florez also wrote a law addressing pesticide drift, certainly something familiar in Kern County. The law was designed to improve the response to drift incidents and prevent costs, such as medical expenses, being passed on to farmworkers. Farmers or applicators must assume those costs in pesticide drift incidents, Florez said.

But his newest -- and last -- attempt at improving the lives of farmworkers is the one that appears to be generating the most controversy.

Few are aware that the state exempted farmworkers from earning overtime pay in 1941. Things would not change much until 1976 when the state Industrial Commission voted to pay farmworkers overtime after 10 hours a day and 60 hours in a week. Meanwhile, other hourly workers get paid overtime after eight hours a day and 40 hours a week.

"I don't see the difference and the logic of excluding farmworkers from overtime," said Florez, the husband and father of two who grew up in Shafter working in the fields and packing houses.

But he never got paid overtime for field work.

Hardly a surprise to anyone, agribusiness is vehemently opposed to SB 1121. "Make us pay farmworkers overtime, and we'll go broke" is the usual refrain.

A myriad of powerful industry organizations is lobbying against the Florez bill, including the California Farm Bureau Federation, Western Growers, Nisei Farmers League, and Allied Grape Growers.

In a letter to Mark DeSaulner, chairman of the Senate Labor and Industrial Relations Committee, opponents say since their operations are critically affected by the uncontrollable whims of nature and the seasonality of agricultural production, agriculture needs greater flexibility in scheduling work than do other industries. And besides, they say, no other state requires overtime pay for farmworkers.

Profit margins in agriculture are razor-thin, say growers, in an industry that brings in billions for the state and Kern County. And if the law is passed, growers say, they'll just get around it by limiting worker hours and hiring more workers to make up the difference. Growers say this will result in a 20 percent reduction in a worker's income, and how can anyone support a measure that cuts pay for workers?

Florez said he's not buying it.

"It sounds similar to the argument folks make whenever the minimum wage is raised... that workers hours are going to be cut as a result," said Florez.

Interestingly, the United Farm Workers union is on the sidelines, claiming it is too involved in other matters to come out and rally or lend its name to a list of SB 1121 supporters. The California Labor Federation, United Food and Commercial Workers Union and California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation are among the supporters.

"Our members have mixed feelings on the issue of overtime," said UFW spokeswoman Maria Machuca.

In a prepared statement, the UFW said farmworkers "fear growers will reduce their hours if the general standard on overtime is applied to them."

Politics makes strange bedfellows as they say.

I asked Florez if he is disappointed by the lack of support from the UFW.

"I have stated before that I fully expect the UFW to support this measure, and I've received positive feedback from union members," said Florez. "I expect that we'll be standing together soon."

The bill cleared the Senate passing 23-12 on June 3. No Republicans voted for it. It now goes to the Assembly Thursday and if it passes there, it is headed to the governor's desk.

Florez is optimistic California's immigrant governor will "do the right thing" and sign the bill into law.

Given that the governor is termed out of office, he just might.

Jose Gaspar is a reporter for "29 Eyewitness News" and a contributing columnist for The Californian. These are the opinions of Gaspar, not necessarily The Californian's. E-mail him at jgaspar@bakersfield.com.

http://www.bakersfield.com/news/local/x467205108/JOSE-GASPAR-Florez-wages-campaign-for-farmworker-overtime